beef sukiyaki salad

japan Easy 
Jill pust her spin on a classic japanese to create a flavour-packed salad

Every cook knows the magic of onions. Slice up a couple and cook them gently and you will have a rich golden mass of sweetness. Basically whatever you make from there on in will have a deeper, richer taste because of that bed of onions. For this recipe, l've combined sweet, slow-cooked onions with everything I love about lapanese beef sukiyaki - the rare beef, the tofu, the sweet soy broth - and tu med it into a wa rm salad with noodles, instead of the traditional one-pot, cook-at-the-table dish. Swap sukiyaki’s shirataki noodles for the easier-to-find glass noodles, and you have a satisfying dinner that makes the most of a relatively small amount of meat.The trick is to combine the onion with spring onion. As the spring onion cooks down, it releases moisture and prevents the onion from browning too easily, so less oil is needed. Add some silken tofu, snow peas and sesame seeds, and it's amazing how lapanese it tastes, even though it's sort-of not.
Serves 4

2 tbs sunflower or peanut oil, plus extra to brush steak
2 onions, thinly sliced into rings
6 spring onions, thinly sliced
300g piece rib-eye or scotch fillet steak
300ml dashi broth* (prepared to packet instructions) or chicken stock, heated
1 tbs mirin* (Japanese rice wine) its cup [80mll soy sauce
4 dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked in boiling water for 30 minutes, stalks removed, sliced
100g silken firm tofu, cut into 1.5cm cubes
2 tsp caster sugar
150g bean thread vermicelli 9glass noodles), cooked to packet instructions
150g snow peas, sliced lengthways
1 tbs black sesame seeds*
Heat the oil in a frypan over medium-low heat and cook sliced onions and half the spring onion for 15 minutes or until soft, stirring occasionally. Set aside. Season steak and brush with olive oil. Heat a frypan over high heat until hot and sear the steak for 60 seconds on both sides until browned. Remove from heat and rest for 10 minutes in a warm place. Meanwhile, bring dashi or stock to a simmer in a large pan over medium-low heat. Stir in mirin and soy, followed by the onion mixture, totu and sugar Heat through tor 2-3 minutes. Divide noodles among A bowls and
top with broth. Thinly slice steak and scatter over noodles, then serve topped with snow peas, sesame seeds and
remaining spring onion.
* From Asian food shops and selected supermarkets.